Graduate Program

We offer a highly selective M.A. in Anthropology.

By limiting the numbers of students we accept, we ensure small-group seminar classes and close supervisor-student interaction in thesis and project research. Recent graduates of the program are now in Ph.D. programs in universities ranging from Yale, to Berkeley, to the University of Hawaii. About half of our students take the M.A. as a path towards advocacy work, employment in government agencies or in commercial companies. Others work as high school and community college teachers, attorneys, film producers and researchers. For a selection of where some of our recent M.A. students are now go to Where are they now? Alumni Destinations.

At SF State, graduate work in Anthropology focuses on four specific areas of research and learning:

bioarchaeology: contextualized skeletal and dental analyses, health of past populations, and osteology in a medico-legal context;

visual representation: ethnographic and applied film making, critique of visual ideology, origins of art, still image and photography;

Currently enrolled students who need to consult the M.A. Handbook can obtain a copy by emailing the graduate coordinator or by visiting the Anthropology Department Office (fifth floor of the Fine Arts Building).